Homer: So
what do you think, Marge? All I need is
a title. I was
thinking along the lines of "No TV and No
Beer
Make
Homer" something something. Marge: [timid] "Go Crazy"?
Homer:
Don't mind if I do!
--The
Simpsons, "Treehouse of Horror V"
Let me begin with an impossibly obscure instance of centralbankese. A policy statement is the kind of text that “Low Quality Translation” theorists say is ripe for computerization because it is repetitive. Check out this little quatrain, taken from a recent statement put out by the Bank of Canada:
To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the considerable monetary policy stimulus currently in place will be eventually withdrawn, consistent with achieving the 2 per cent inflation target.
After puzzling over this monstrosity for
several minutes, I realized that most of the cognitive dissonance for me came
from “current material excess supply” (it just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t
it?). Let us run it through Google
Translate:
"En la medida en que la expansión continúa y el suministro de material excedente actual en la economía se absorbe poco a poco, algunas de las medidas de estímulo monetario considerable actualmente en vigor con el tiempo se retiró, en consonancia con el logro de la meta de inflación del 2 por ciento."
GoogleT is correct in providing “en la
medida en que” (I would have used “en la medida que,” but you have to give some
points for Google Translate); the verb tense in "continúa" needs changing to the subjunctive "cointinúe"). All in all, the first snippet of the MT version is OK.
But the GoogleT sentence gets more and more garbled after “current excess
material supply.” What the phrase means, of course, is “current and significant excess supply.”
“Material” here is an adjective (GoogleT guesses incorrectly that here it is a
noun). But even if GoogleT had guessed right, it would still have a mountain to climb. The question here is: “excess supply” of what? Is it monetary supply or unused
capacity utilization or unsold
inventory? Or all of them? My hunch is that it refers to the supply of money, but
that is a decision I would have to consult further.
The “Crap Quality” ideologue believes that
this messy human element (the undecidability of this hyeroglyph) can be elided
in the case of “non-literary” texts. And the solution goes something like what
I am about to describe. Imagine, for example, that we take all of the central
bank policy statements written since the dawn of time (yes, back even to the
times of the Roman Imperial Central Bank) and take all of the translations of
those statements and upload them into the Universal Central Bank Policy
Statement Translation Engine (the UCBPSTE©). Chop it all up and run it through
the algorithm.
Is the translation still deficient? “No
problemo,” as Americans say. Just take every
single text that has ever been translated since the time of Cain with its
original and cram both into the engine. What? Still garbage? Nothing doing.
Let’s get large crowds of hamsters to translate all manner of texts to enrich
the database. Eventually, given enough data (pant, pant), we will have an
answer for our troublesome “current material excess supply.”
I am here to tell you that this is
unlikely. That forgets two problems. The first (and lesser one) is that central
bank policy statements are willfully obscure. The Canadian bureaucrat who wrote
the unfortunate “current material excess supply” is not just a bad writer. He practices to be a bad writer. He will be
cranking out impenetrable hieroglyphs until the universe stops expanding and
collapses back upon itself and we are all crushed as matter expands further and
further to create an infinitely cold, infinitely empty void.
The second (and more important) obstacle is
the lack of repetitiveness in something as complex as language and history (two
areas not bound by strict rules). The “Crap Quality” people talk about the
Content Tsunami, right? That means there should be a large enough (and ever
increasing) corpus to solve most translation conundrums. To gauge the scale of
the challenge, let us ask ourselves how many times in the history of humanity
have the words “current material excess supply” been strung together by a
hominid with opposable thumbs. Let’s do a Boolean search on the Internet using
quotation marks to get exact hits for the phrase.
Aha! We get 21,000 hits. This bodes pretty
well for computer-capturable repetitiveness, since it increases the likelihood that
this tough nut of a phrase was translated.
Alas! Our “Crap Quality” theorist will feel
a distinct pang of disappointment. And perhaps an extreme terror, not unlike
Jack Nicholson’s wife in The Shining
as she inspects her hubby’s literary handiwork. Yes, it is as if the Internet
has been maniacally scribbling “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”
over and over again. (Oh, faceless Canadian bureaucrat, I love you!) The 21,000 instances of “current material
excess supply” come from the same sentence quoted 21,000 times. The point
is (if it needs explanation) that “current material excess supply” is made up
of non-problematic components (taken singly); the problem is that when you
string them together, they create a unit that is not susceptible to statistical
deciphering. The further point (and the objection to “Lower Quality
Translation”) is that there are potentially infinite strings like “current
material excess supply” out there, unspoken. And they are far more frequent than engineers who have never translated a word in their life think. So a rose is a rose is not a rose.
1.
Material - Excess -
Supply - Forex-Tribe.com
www.forex-tribe.com/.../material-... - Estados Unidos - Traducir
esta página
19 Aug 2011 – ... the statement: To
the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, ...
- [PDF]
The
Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its ...
www.pavaomortgages.com/.../... - Traducir
esta página
Formato de archivo: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Vista rápida
To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the considerable monetary ...
To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the considerable monetary ...
3.
Bank
of Canada holds key rate at 1% « CREA News
creanews.ca/.../bank-of-canada-holds-key-rate-at... - Traducir esta página
19 Jul 2011 – The Bank said, “To the extent that the expansion
continues and the current material excess
supply in the economy is gradually
absorbed, some ...
4.
Release
of the Monetary Policy Report - Bank of Canada
www.bankofcanada.ca/.../opening-statement-81/ - Traducir
esta página
20 Jul 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
5.
Mortgage
Cents
mortgage-cents.com/.../index5009.html?&conten... - Traducir
esta página
"To the extent that
the expansion continues and the current
material excess supply in the
economy is gradually absorbed, some of the considerable monetary ...
6.
Monetary
Policy Week in Review - 23 July 2011 - Central Bank News
www.centralbanknews.info/.../monetary-policy-... - Traducir
esta página
23 Jul 2011 – Bank of Canada (held interest rate at 1.00%):
"To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the ...
7.
BOC
Removes “Eventually” From When To Withdraw Monetary ...
www.dailymarkets.com/.../boc-re... - Estados Unidos - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
8.
SEPTEMBER 2011 MARKET UPDATE |
The Uniacke Newsletter
www.uniackenewsletter.ca/?p=2523 - Traducir
esta página
1 Oct 2011 – According to the Bank of Canada, “To the extent that
the expansion continues and the current
material excess supply in the
economy is ...
9.
Bank
of Canada Holds Overnight Rate At 1%, May 31 2011 | The ...
theinvestmentblog.net/.../bank-of-canada-maintai... - Traducir esta página
31 May 2011 – ... stated that
maintaining the overnight rate but warns “To the extent that the expansion
continues and the current material excess
supply in the ...
10.Global
Monetary Policy Week in Review - 23 July 2011 (Guest Post ...
www.econmatters.com/.../global-monetary-polic... - Traducir
esta página
23 Jul 2011 – Bank of Canada (held interest rate at 1.00%):
"To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the ...
1
|
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2 ).
Resultados de búsqueda
1.
Still At 1%
www.mises.ca/posts/blog/still-at-1/ - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
2.
Canada | Divestor
divestor.com/category/canada/ - Traducir
esta página
To the extent that the
expansion continues and the current material
excess supply in the economy is
gradually absorbed, some of the considerable monetary ...
3.
Chris Sperber : Re/Max Ocean Pacific
Realty, Comox : Blog
chris-sperber.com/blog.html - Traducir
esta página
20 Jul 2011 – The Bank said, “To the extent that the expansion
continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some ...
4.
No
hints when BoC will start tightening | Advisor.ca
www.advisor.ca/.../no-hints-when-boc-will-start-t... - Traducir
esta página
31 May 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
5.
Bank
of Canada leaves interest rate unchanged - CityNews
www.citytv.com
› Life › Money - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – "To the extent that the expansion continues and
the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
6.
Interest
Rates - The Globe and Mail
m.theglobeandmail.com/.../article204102... - Canadá - Traducir
esta página
31 May 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
7.
Bank
of Canada holds rate, sees hike on - Ottawa SUN
m.ottawasun.com/.../bank-of-canada-hold... - Canadá - Traducir esta página
19 Jul 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
8.
BOC
Rate Statement Invigorates Loonie — Forex News
www.topforexnews.com/.../boc-rate-statement-in... - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
9.
Canadian
Monetary Policy and Outlook Not Changed – Currency ...
currencythoughts.com/.../canadian-monetary-pol... - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – ... and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the considerable
monetary policy stimulus currently in ...
10.BoC
Leaves Key Rate Untouched at 1.00%
www.canadianmortgagetrends.com/.../boc-leaves... - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – ... Pending continued
economic expansion and absorption in "the current material excess supply in the economy...some of the considerable ...
2
|
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3 ).
Resultados de búsqueda
1.
July 19, 2011 « PrefBlog
www.prefblog.com/?p=15745 - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, ...
2.
TheRecord
- Bank says it will raise rates if economy continues to...
www.therecord.com
› News › Business - Traducir
esta página
31 May 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
3.
Bank
of Canada warns of rate hikes to come
money.canoe.ca/.../07/20110719-093156.html - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – ``To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
4.
Bank of Canada sees
hikes on the horizon - Business - CBC News
www.cbc.ca/fp/story/2011/07/19/5124658.html - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
- [PDF]
Released:
September 2011
images.kw.com/.../09_TMIRE_Sep_CA_2011.p... - Traducir esta página
Formato de archivo: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Vista rápida
15 Jul 2011 – the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the considerable monetary policy stimulus currently in place ...
15 Jul 2011 – the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the considerable monetary policy stimulus currently in place ...
6.
CAD
Extends Gains After Bank Of Canada Statement » ForexNews.com
www.forexnews.com/.../cad-extends-gains-after-... - Traducir
esta página
31 May 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
7.
Monetary
Policy Week In Review - 23 July 2011 | iStockAnalyst.com
www.istockanalyst.com/.../monetary-policy-wee... - Traducir
esta página
23 Jul 2011 – Bank of Canada (held interest rate at 1.00%):
"To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the ...
8.
Mortgage
Rates Remain the Same!
www.chriskeleher.ca/.../8_Mortgage_Rates_Rem... - Traducir
esta página
8 Jun 2011 – "To the extent that the expansion continues and
the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
9.
Bank
of Canada Holds Interest Rate at 1.00% - centralbanknews ...
seekingalpha.com/.../196703-bank-of-canada-ho... - Traducir esta página
19 Jul 2011 – The Bank commented in its statement: "To the
extent that the expansion continues and the current
material excess supply in the
economy is ...
10.Canada economy - Pier 16
www.pier16.ca/category/canada-economy/ - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
3
|
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4 ).
Resultados de búsqueda
1.
2011 July « CREA News
creanews.ca/2011/07/ - Traducir esta página
19 Jul 2011 – The Bank said, “To the extent that the expansion
continues and the current material excess
supply in the economy is gradually
absorbed, some ...
2.
Rates
Stay the Same - The Very Best Mortgage Company
www.verybestmortgage.ca/.../Rates_Stay_the_Sa... - Traducir
esta página
31 May 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, ...
3.
July
19 2011 – BoC: Holds Key Interest Rate 1.0%
www.ontariomortgagesuperstore.com/.../j... - Canadá - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – “To the extent that the (Canadian) expansion
continues and the current material excess
supply in the economy is gradually
absorbed, some of ...
4.
Bank
of Canada: Key Overnight Interest Rate Left Unchanged ...
banknerd.ca
› News - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – ... of Canada
explained that we are seeing the Canadian economy expansion continue to the
point where the current material excess
supply in ...
5.
Bank of Canada
maintains overnight rate target at 1 per cent
www.wynsumhomes.com/news-events-details.ph... - Traducir esta página
31 May 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
- [PDF]
BANK
OF CANADA
www.desjardins.com/.../ep110531.pdf - Canadá - Traducir
esta página
Formato de archivo: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Vista rápida
31 May 2011 – the overnight rate at 1 per cent. To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually ...
31 May 2011 – the overnight rate at 1 per cent. To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually ...
7.
Bank
of Canada holds rate steady | Vancouver Sun Blogs
blogs.vancouversun.com/.../bank-of-canada-hol... - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
8.
Read
More... - Top Stories
m.ctv.ca/.../bank-of-canada-interest-rate-announ... - Traducir esta página
19 Jul 2011 – "To the extent that the expansion continues and
the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
9.
Bank of
Canada sets stage for next rate hike | Business | Reuters
ca.reuters.com › Home › News › Business - Traducir esta página
19 Jul 2011 – "To the extent that the expansion continues and
the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
10.BOC
Removes "Eventually" from When to Withdraw Monetary Stimulus ...
www.fxstreet.com/fundamental/analysis.../03/ - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
4
|
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5 ).
Resultados de búsqueda
1.
Consumer
Prime stays the same at 3% – but for how long ...
blog.markherman.ca/.../consumer-prime-stays-th... - Traducir esta página
19 Jul 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
2.
BANK
OF CANADA | Bank of Canada maintains overnight rate target ...
www.newswire.ca/en/releases/.../19/c6193.html - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
3.
Foreign
Exchange Rate Watch | Equity Financial Trust - Part 11
equityfinancialtrust.com/foreign.../foreign.../11 - Traducir esta página
Mr. Carney said the BOC and
I quote, “ To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually ...
4.
Forex News : Forex
News and Commentary by FXDD
forex.fxdd.com/category/forex-news/page/13 - Traducir esta página
To the extent that the
expansion continues and the current material
excess supply in the economy is gradually
absorbed, some of the considerable monetary ...
5.
13 | August | 2011 |
Calgary Real Estate Review
calgaryrealestatereview.com/2011/08/13/ - Canadá - Traducir
esta página
13 Aug 2011 – ... and will only
occur “to the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed.” ...
6.
Valueland
Mortgages - Valueland news
www.valueland.ca/.../Bank-of-Canada---No-Cha... - Traducir
esta página
31 May 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
7.
Weekly
Forex Market Followup (July 18th - July 22nd 2011)
www.forextraders.com
› News - Traducir
esta página
22 Jul 2011 – CAD - BOC Rate Statement said, "To the extent
that the expansion continues and the current
material excess supply in the
economy is ...
8.
Bank
of Canada Keeps 1% Policy Rate Saying Increases to Come ...
www.bloomberg.com/.../canada-keeps-benchmar... - Traducir
esta página
31 May 2011 – Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg. “To the extent that the
expansion continues and the current material
excess supply in the economy is
gradually ...
9.
Some
relief from gloomy U.S. housing news in June and “knock on ...
www.reedconstructiondata.com/.../some-relief-fr... - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – Those comments were as follows: “To the extent that
the expansion continues and the current
material excess supply in the
economy is ...
10.Bank
of Canada maintains overnight rate target at 1 per cent - Bank ...
www.bankofcanada.ca/.../fad-press-release-2011... - Traducir
esta página
19 Jul 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
5
|
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6 ).
Resultados de búsqueda
1.
Bank of Canada
maintains overnight rate target at 1 per ... - Verisite
www.verisite.ca/rayparsi/mortgage_news/798 - Traducir
esta página
31 May 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
2.
Search
- Forex Analysis, Currency Forecast, FX Trading Signal ...
www.actionforex.com/index.php?... - Traducir
esta página
80 results – That's a far cry from the July statement that had
said, "To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the ...
3.
Bank_of_Canada_holds_key_rate
seaandski.on.ca/.../Bank_of_Canada_holds_key_... - Traducir esta página
19 Jul 2011 – The Bank said, “To the extent that the expansion
continues and the current material excess
supply in the economy is gradually
absorbed, some ...
- [PDF]
Canadian
Mortgage News - Bank of Canada maintains overnight rate ...
archive.canequity.com/.../2011-05-31_B... - Canadá - Traducir
esta página
Formato de archivo: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Vista rápida
31 May 2011 – extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some ...
31 May 2011 – extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some ...
5.
Rates
Stay the Same - VERICO Integra Mortgage Corp.
www.debraowen.com/.../Rates_Stay_the_Same.p... - Traducir esta página
31 May 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
6.
Housing
Analysis: Putting 贰 and 贰 together
housing-analysis.blogspot.com/.../putting-and-to... - Traducir esta página
1 Jun 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
7.
Lethbridge
Real Estate - Bank of Canada ... - Welcome to Localism
localism.com/blog/.../Lethbridge-Real-Estate-Ban... - Traducir
esta página
31 May 2011 – To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, some of the ...
- [PDF]
may
11.indd
www.central1.com/publications/.../may%2011.p... - Traducir esta página
Formato de archivo: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Vista rápida
the words “current material excess supply in the economy”, “considerable monetary policy stimulus”, and “reduction would need to be carefully consid- ered”. ...
the words “current material excess supply in the economy”, “considerable monetary policy stimulus”, and “reduction would need to be carefully consid- ered”. ...
9.
Invade
Canada » Blog Archive » Canada Keeps Benchmark Lending Rate ...
invadecanada.us/.../canada-keeps-benchmark-len... - Traducir
esta página
31 May 2011 – “To the extent that the expansion continues and the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed, ...
10.Edmonton Real Estate Blog
www.firsthomepros.com/blog/ - Traducir
esta página
8 Jul 2011 – "To the extent that the expansion continues and
the current material excess supply in the economy is gradually absorbed,” the Bank of
Canada ...
Miguel Llorens is a freelance financial translator based in Madrid who works from Spanish into English. He is specialized in equity research, economics, accounting, and investment strategy. He has worked as a translator for Goldman Sachs, the US Government's Open Source Center and H.B.O. International. To contact him, visit his website and write to the address listed there. You can also join his LinkedIn network by visiting the profile or follow him on Twitter.
Miguel Llorens is a freelance financial translator based in Madrid who works from Spanish into English. He is specialized in equity research, economics, accounting, and investment strategy. He has worked as a translator for Goldman Sachs, the US Government's Open Source Center and H.B.O. International. To contact him, visit his website and write to the address listed there. You can also join his LinkedIn network by visiting the profile or follow him on Twitter.
Fantastic! Great bit of de-construction work on those machine people. The point is that a human translator's work is largely interpretative: she must get inside the writer's head and understand, interpret and relate what he's on about - poor writing and all.
ReplyDeletethanks or the comment, Simon. I'm glad the message got through without having to make it too obvious or preachy.
ReplyDeleteThis is pure gold.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently going through a mountain of medical reports from all over Latin America, and -as much as it makes me sweat sometimes- I can't help but feeling a pang of joy at the insane number of ways in which the exact same thing can be expressed within a controlled environment with a common standard vocabulary.
Up yours, C3PO!
I just had to come back to this post because either I'm reading too much into things, or I'm looking at something right now that has "willfully obscure" written all over it.
ReplyDeleteI'm translating a series of recommendations, and after a number of pretty straightforward sentences, we get to this jewel:
"In case of X, it is recommended that Y should be interrupted, and may be resumed if X (miraculously disappears)."
This kind of lawyer-redacted sleaziness gives me a severe case of The Creeps.
When you recommend a course of action, it's already implied that something "should" be done. That's why they're called recommendations and not direct orders.
What those extra "should be" and "may be" tell me as a reader is "...but if you actually do this and it blows up in your stupid face, don't come calling foul to us. You're on your own, dude."
I know I should be happy for this as a translator and I will be once the check comes in, but as a human being, this kind of ass-covering attitude just makes me retch.
I wouldn't make an apology of ass-covering, but the obverse, the worship of total openness, is likewise prone to a lot of bullshit:
ReplyDelete"Structure is what makes information usable. Making everything totally connected and open to everything destroys structure. This principle works for code, but it is also cosmic."
This is from Jaron Lanier's analysis of Wikileaks. Readable throughout. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/12/the-hazards-of-nerd-supremacy-the-case-of-wikileaks/68217/2